Marius. Sylla’s soldiers Are fast upon our heels. Get to the shore; Some fisher’s boat will help us from the land, And bear us whither the directing fates Decree for refuge—safely o’er the seas That gulphed our treacherous vessel. Cethegus. Be it so! I follow thee whatever be thy fate! Marius. Hark! dost thou hear? Cethegus. What sound? Marius. The tramp of horse; And lo! the boat awaits us by the shore! —— _Marius, alone, seated among the Ruins of Carthage._ Alone, but not a captive—not o’ercome By any fate, and reckless of its doom, Even midst the ruins by his own arm made, There sits the Exile, lone, but unafraid! What mighty thoughts, that will not be repressed, Warm his wild mood, and swell his laboring breast; What glorious memories of the immortal strife, Which gave him fame, and took from Carthage life; That giant-like, sea rival of his own Proud realm, still challenging the sway and throne; Doomed in long conflict, through experience dread, To bend the neck at last, to bow the head; To feel his foot upon her lordly brow, And yield to him who shares her ruins now. How o’er his soul, with passion still that gushed, The wondrous past with all its memories rushed; These ruins made his monument. They told Of wisest strategy, adventure bold. Dread fields of strife—an issue doubtful long, That tried his genius, and approved it strong; That left him robed in conquest, and supreme, His country’s boast, his deeds her brightest theme; Written in brass and marble—sung in strains That warm the blood to dances in the veins; That make young hearts with wild ambition thrill, And crown the spirit with achieving will; That seem eternal in the deeds they show, And waken echoes that survive below; Brood o’er the mortal slumbering in the tomb, And keep his name in song, his works in bloom, Till envious rivals, hopeless of pursuit, Join in the homage, who till then were mute; Catch up the glorious anthem, and unite To sing the bird they could not match in flight; Content to honor where they could not shame, And praise the worth they could not rob of fame.